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That sucks, high heels have a long history that totally fits with fantasy:PhoneLobster wrote: No really. People were having work banned for having high heels on shoes. Not even like stilettos, but really, just mildly elevated heels. Because some dumb chump though that wasn't historically accurate enough for a dragon wizard or whatever bullshit to wear. There were arguments about acceptable belt buckle designs
SF = Speculative Fiction. Fantasy and scifi are both SF.nockermensch wrote:I think you have this exactly backwards. Most Sci works Fi have elements that as far as we know are pure fantasy (FTL travel, aliens, psionics, strong AIs with personalities, etc), with only the barest of technological dressings over them.Bihlbo wrote:Stop calling it fantasy. It's all SF.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
Both.fectin wrote:Clever. How do you learn enough Indian history to do that without being offensive?
Slightly related: Steampunk Central Africa: awesome setting or racist landmine?
Any advice on how to not make it a landmine though?K wrote:Landmine.fectin wrote:Clever. How do you learn enough Indian history to do that without being offensive?
Slightly related: Steampunk Central Africa: awesome setting or racist landmine?
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
If I was to design an uchronic setting on the fly, I'd say give a headstart in steam technology to Carthage, but not enough not to loose the third Punic War, and have a few Carthaginians flee the destruction of their city and heading south, founding a new empire on the Niger to taking revenge on Rome a few decades or centuries later with steam powered tanks.Judging__Eagle wrote:I'm not saying that I'm willing to have steam technology without an explanation stemming from Africa.
On the other hand, given the inherent simplicity of the original aeropilie; and the fact that while it's called Heron's Engine; it predated him in literature by at least a century ... I could see a logic behind multiple brass/iron age cultures developing their own forms of steam powered mechanisms.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
There's a Chinese precursor to the Bessemer process that "utilized partial decarbonization via repeated forging under a cold blast."hyzmarca wrote:The key to mass producing steam tech isn't the steam engine itself, it's the Bessemer process for smelting steel.
-Iron and Steel in Ancient China"By no later than the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.), the Chinese developed the technology of the blast furnace. This allowed them to heat the ore above its melting point, and produce cast iron. Among the inventions that made this possible, was the double-action bellows. The manufacture of iron, using a blast furnace to produce a molten metal, greatly expanded production: The process could be continuous, as the molten metal flowed from the reducing furnace, was poured into molds, and made into a large variety of products.
The blast furnace was introduced in Europe, on a wide scale, only in the late 14th Century, almost 2,000 years later. The use of cast iron was, unfortunately, introduced in Europe largely for the production of cannon; Henry VII constructed the first blast furnaces in England. The replacement of the bloom furnace with the blast furnace, increased productivity in the English iron industry 15-fold.
The Chinese were able to manufacture superior tools, that the more primitive European metallurgy was incapable of producing, which led to a substantial advance in productivity throughout the entire economy. As early as the Third Century B.C., the state of Qin appointed government officials to supervise the iron industry, and penalize manufacturers who produced substandard products. The Han Dynasty nationalized all cast-iron manufacture in 119 B.C. Around that time, there were 46 imperial Iron Casting Bureaus throughout the country, with government officials insuring that cast-iron tools were widely available. This included cast-iron plowshares, iron hoes, iron knives, axes, chisels, saws and awls, cast-iron pots, and even toys.
The Chinese also developed methods for the manufacture of steel that were only matched in the West, in the recent period. The characteristics of iron alloys are related to the carbon content. Cast iron generally has a high carbon content, which makes it strong, but brittle. Steel, which is an alloy of iron with a low carbon content, is strong and more durable. The use of steel in agricultural implements was introduced, on a wide scale, during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). This led to a further improvement in productivity.
In the Second Century B.C., the Chinese developed what became known in the West as the Bessemer process. They developed a method for converting cast iron into steel, by blowing air on the molten metal, which reduced the carbon content. In 1845, William Kelly brought four Chinese steel experts to Kentucky, and learned this method from them, for which he received an American patent. However, he went bankrupt, and his claims were made over to the German, Bessemer, who had also developed a similar process. "
The problem with landmines is that you don't know where there are except in the most general sense. Even if you are careful, chances are good that you are going to touch something off.Judging__Eagle wrote:Any advice on how to not make it a landmine though?K wrote:Landmine.fectin wrote:Clever. How do you learn enough Indian history to do that without being offensive?
Slightly related: Steampunk Central Africa: awesome setting or racist landmine?
You can't. See the bottom line is that when we make French or German or Russian expies for a fantasy game, that's kind of racist. Actually, it's just plain racist. There's really no way to boil down real people to genre tropes without leveraging racist stereotypes.Judging__Eagle wrote:Any advice on how to not make it a landmine though?K wrote:Landmine.fectin wrote:Clever. How do you learn enough Indian history to do that without being offensive?
Slightly related: Steampunk Central Africa: awesome setting or racist landmine?
FrankTrollman wrote: Halfling women, as I'm sure you are aware, combine all the "fun" parts of pedophilia without any of the disturbing, illegal, or immoral parts.
K wrote:That being said, the usefulness of airships for society is still transporting cargo because it's an option that doesn't require a powerful wizard to show up for work on time instead of blowing the day in his harem of extraplanar sex demons/angels.
Chamomile wrote: See, it's because K's belief in leaving generation of individual monsters to GMs makes him Chaotic, whereas Frank's belief in the easier usability of monsters pre-generated by game designers makes him Lawful, and clearly these philosophies are so irreconcilable as to be best represented as fundamentally opposed metaphysical forces.
Whipstitch wrote:You're on a mad quest, dude. I'd sooner bet on Zeus getting bored and letting Sisyphus put down the fucking rock.
Yeeeah.Mask_De_H wrote:So isn't the answer to do your homework and make a strong, culturally rich setting based on things like the Kingdom of Mali, thus awakening the world to the wonders of the cradle of civilization?
There's enough cool shit that you wouldn't have to play to stereotypes, nor should you.
